"It is commonly assumed that black men and women were seldom found in the northern Great Plains states. But it would be a mistake to assume that African-Americans are without significance in the history of the region or of the northernmost state of the Great Plains, North Dakota. 

Pioneer African-Americans came to North Dakota in many ways: as fur traders, steamboat workers, cattlemen, railroad workers, harvest crews, homesteaders, baseball players and working men and women.

In fact, the parade of black participants in Dakota life begins in the first moments of the Nineteenth Century with men like York, that able black man who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and home again to St. Louis.

This volume discusses those individuals who were historically "newsworthy" as well as the less spectacular people who came and went in every moment of North Dakota history: the "wood hawks" who cut timber along the Missouri, the roustabouts on the steamers, the cowboys, the women who served as servants in the homes of the early day gentry and the soldiers posted to the black regiments on the frontier. 

Presented here is the information about over one hundred black individuals and families who homesteaded, farmed and ranched during North Dakota settlement times. As much detail as possible has been gathered concerning the relatively large number of African-Americans who were part of early village life, running small cafes, barber shops, and the like.

An assessment, at times summarily and sometimes extensive, concludes the various chapters. The presence or absence of discrimination is particularly noted. Both the ugly and the heroic moments are portrayed. 

In brief, then, this volume presents a chronicle of the black men and women who lived in a permanent, or semi-permanent way, in Dakota from the earliest days till the mid-20th century. The appendix provides extensive press reports, often in terms of crime and misadventure. It contains also a complete list of names and details concerning every black resident as found in the census manuscripts from Dakota Territorial days until 1920. This later portion of the book should be of interest to scholars and genealogists." - taken from inside book jacket